Ridiculously high packages- I left a premier hedge fund last year, and right as the ink dried on the paperwork for my new role, a friend called me who I worked with in the past that landed a high up role there running a big revenue generating piece of their technology org, and I was like bud, its been awhile, I have been very fortunate, you might not be able to afford me... and he blew me away with comp about 50% higher than I had just signed for, and it wasn't one of those its all stock that vests in 4 year things, it vested I believe quarterly, with no restrictions to hold further. We are talking comp around the 7 figure range. Huge numbers.

I think a lot of tech companies are going to start seeing this as a big problem. When you are hiring regular rank and file engineers at 500k you blow through money really fast. We'll see if the bean counters decide that controlling payroll costs is worth having a harder time hiring.

Is it though? How are stock grants counted? Yes, the big tech base salaries are higher, but the insane numbers people read typically include a very large stock component.

Someone else linked to levels for COIN and I saw mostly 100-200k base (some higher, but I doubt the company is mostly made of L7+ whatevers), but huge stock grants. The base seems perfectly reasonable for people working in a space where mistakes can cost significant amounts of money.

I think a bigger issue with big tech stocks sinking is top talent leaving to either do their own thing or take sabbaticals.

+1.. COIN trying to hire FAANG engineers so have to pay high salaries to attract them